The mood surrounding this finale could hardly be more different than the first one for Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun. Here’s what I wrote in the Spring Season Preview:

Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun passes the GFantasy baton back to Kuroshitsuji this spring. This has been the shortest wait yet between Kuroshitsuji seasons, so hopefully Hanako-kun will follow suit and not make us wait nearly so long until its third season. I like that series even more than this one but they’ve both been consistently excellent examples of darkly comic fantasy, and shounen aimed primarily at female audiences (though wildly popular generally).

It never made sense that either Kuroshitsuji or Hanako-kun should have long waits between seasons, given that both manga are huge sellers. Black Butler has already moved past that, but who knew what was going to happen with this series? That’s why the immediate announcement that the third season would be airing in summer (effectively making this a split cour, if you like) was such a relief. After S1 I was deeply irritated and pessimistic about the whole thing (especially as a lot of crap shows were getting sequel announcements at the time). Now, it’s all stress-free and good vibes. I’ll take this way, thanks very much.

In the end, “Picture Perfect” would up running seven episodes – more than half the season. I don’t know if it’s the longest arc in the series but it’s certainly the longest so far. I would say it lagged just a little bit in the middle by this show’s enormously high standards, but it opened and closed extremely strongly. Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun has a lot of the fairy tale to it – fairy tale in the old sense, a stark contrast of whimsy and darkness. Lewis Carroll painted very much in that same palette, and this arc had an awful lot of “Alice” to it. This series is never more enchanting than when it really gives free rein to its limitless imagination, and this premise was perfectly constructed to do just that.

With Shijima-san now an ally, the dynamic of this story changed radically. She directs them to the emergency exit – and it’s on the moon. That raises its own set of challenges – even in a fantasy world you still have to get there. But Hanako-kun is now the enemy. He’s barely been a factor in the past few episodes, and now he re-emerges effectively as the antagonist. Irrespective of his motives, he wants something different for Nene than she wants for herself. She gets Brush-chan to make her a carriage to fly her to the moon (she asks for a pumpkin one – like Cinderella – but gets a bicycle-powered ride) but Hanako isn’t letting her go without a fight.

Kou distracting Hanako is part of Nene’s plan. Hanako actually admits he likes the boy (for his kindness) but we really knew that – he’s not going to do Kou any real damage. But Kou is no match for him in the end. To win the day Nene-chan is going to have to convince Hanako to let her go back willingly. The problem is he just doesn’t want to let her die back there. Once upon a time Hanako-kun the Wonder didn’t care what humans lived or died, but the time he’s spent with Nene has changed him.

In the final analysis, Hanako can’t resist a wish from Nene. Whatever her future is, she wants to face it. But even in giving in, Hanako-kun can’t go back the same way she and the others can. Going to the moon was his wish in life – he can’t fulfil it now, in death. All he can do is exist and atone. There’s a cruel poetry to that, but then cruel poetry is something that comes very naturally to Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun. He can only return when this world is destroyed. And it can only be destroyed when Shijima Mei’s yorishiro is destroyed. That means she stops being a school wonder – but Shijima of the Art Room is OK with that. This was never a fate she asked for in the first place.

Will Nene’s wishes – college, nomikai, a wedding dress – ever come true? Mei’s final benediction to her is some advice – go to the first wonder, the Clock Keepers. They know more about time than anyone. But her fate remains very much uncertain. That it is her fate, however, and not already her reality somehow imparts to her more hope than Hanako or Sosuuke have. They can never have life again – not outside a false construct like Shijima’s painting. And if Nene does manage to avoid the theoretically undefeated enemy that is time, she ends any possibility of being with the boy she loves, for he’s already dead. Cruel poetry indeed.

Thanks to the post-credit scene, we already have a good idea of what at last some of Season 3 (or Season 2 Part 2, we’ll see what they decide to call it) will cover. We’ve heard little or nothing about Wonder #6, but we now know it’s The Grim Reaper. That promises some interesting developments, but in truth there really are no down arcs in Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun (including the ones the anime has skipped). It’s pure quality, both in terms of the writing and the visual aesthetic, whether in manga or anime form. Any season or year is much the better for having this series as a part of it.